Badger Trust
PredecessorThe National Federation of Badger Groups
Formation1986
TypeRegistered Charity
Chief Executive
Peter Hambly
Chair
Rosie Wood
Websitebadgertrust.org.uk

Badger Trust, formerly the National Federation of Badger Groups (NFBG),[1] is an animal welfare charity operating in England and Wales. It represents around fifty local badger groups dedicated to the conservation and protection of the European badger.[2] It states that it is the leading voice for badgers and that its charitable aim is to promote and enhance the welfare, conservation and protection of badgers, their setts and their habitats.

The trust campaigns against badger culling in the United Kingdom.[3] The trust filed legal challenges in the High Court against planned badger culls, challenging a planned cull in Wales in 2010.[4] The Trust won a temporary halt to the Welsh cull.[5] In 2012, the Trust's lawyers sent a 16-page legal letter to Natural England, which licensed a badger cull, calling upon the agency to stop a planned cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset;[6][7] in 2014, the Trust filed a challenge in High Court to this planned cull.[8] This challenge was unsuccessful.[9] In 2016, the Badger Trust spoke out against plans to expand badger culling to five new areas in South West England; the group's chief executive said that the four years of badger culling had "been a disastrous failure on scientific, cost and humaneness grounds" and called for a halt.[10] Badger Trust has taken the UK government to international court under the Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats on animal welfare grounds and the threat of local extinction of badgers due to the high culling rate. The case is ongoing.

In 2014, the group issued a report about illegal snaring and hunting of badgers in Britain.[11] The Badger Trust sees campaigning around crimes against badgers as a key area of focus and has called for increased sentences to five years, in line with crimes against domestic animals.[12]

Local Badger Groups are the direct action side of the Badger Trust. There are around 50 local voluntary Badger Groups in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee; Parliament Great Britain House of Commons (15 March 2006). Bovine TB: Badger Culling, Sixth Report of Session 2005-06, Vol. 2: Oral and Written Evidence. The Stationery Office. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-215-02789-4. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  2. ↑ Meredith, Charlotte (27 February 2013). "Controversial badger cull given the go-ahead despite outrage from animal welfare groups". Daily Express. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  3. ↑ Driver, Alistair (11 September 2011). "Badger Trust loses legal battle to halt badger cull". The Farmers Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012.
  4. ↑ Steven Morris, Badger charity challenges Welsh cull, The Guardian (March 22, 2010).
  5. ↑ James Meikle, Judges halt Welsh badger cull, The Guardian (July 13, 2010).
  6. ↑ Badger Trust letter to Natural England attempting to halt badger cull, The Guardian (October 22, 2012).
  7. ↑ Damian Carrington, Badger cull under threat from last-minute legal challenge, The Guardian (October 21, 2012).
  8. ↑ Badger cull faces fresh legal challenge, Press Association (August 21, 2014).
  9. ↑ Adam Vaughan, Badger cull campaigners lose legal battle, The Guardian (October 29, 2014).
  10. ↑ Alice Ross, Badger cull protesters change tactics in response to expansion, The Guardian (August 23, 2016).
  11. ↑ Damian Carrington, Illegal snaring of badgers rising, report finds, The Guardian (October 2, 2014).
  12. ↑ "Protection of Badgers Act 30 Years". Badger Trust. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  13. ↑ "The local badger group network – a lifeline for badgers". Badger Trust. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
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